With an estimated 1,000 school-aged autistic children in Genesee County, the Children's Autism Center is expected to help nearly 100 children here. . . . .

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors, according to the website. . . . .

ASRC serves over 700 people with autism and their families at a time, Daleo said. It's great to have another resource in the county to help the community, she said.

And as a parent with two autistic sons, ages 13 and 19, Daleo said she wished there would have been something like this for them when they were younger.

It was difficult trying to figure out why her children were different and why they had a hard time in social situations. At first they were incorrectly diagnosed, which was frustrating, Daleo said. . .

At the peak the center should have 35 or 40 staff. Outside from providing the space, Hurley Medical Center also provides consultants, speech therapists, occupational therapists and physical therapists.

Hurley Medical Center officials were also looking into providing autism services to the county at the same time that GHS was in the process of looking for a location. The partnership between the two seemed to fit perfectly, said Renay Gagleard, women and children's service line administrator at Hurley.

"There's such a need in the community and not enough resources," she said. "We were both looking at the same thing and we found each other. The space we had was perfect and jointly we were able to offer this service."

Hurley physicians are excited to partner with the center and see how it grows, Gagleard said.

Tompkins said the services should only grow.

"This has been an exciting project, just a lot of fun," Tompkins

This is about new Genesee Health System's new Children's Autism Center in Michigan. It sounds like it makes like better for lots of families. It's hard to really understand how this is going to help the majority of affected kids when we're told there are 1,000 children with autism in in Genesee County and this clinic is expected only to help 100 of them.

WHAT DOES GENESEE COUNTY DO FOR ADULTS WITH AUTISM? I really want to know. How many programs do they have for them?

If there are 1,000 children with autism in that county, someone should be able to find a comparable number of adults....but they never do. They're never talked about.

We're told, "There's such a need in the community and not enough resources."

Despite the fact that we're told the "prevalence is very high," no one explains why so many kids are sick and why there's such a demand for help, NO ONE IS WORRIED. We're told "physicians are excited" and that it's been 'an exciting project, just a lot of fun.'

CHILDREN born to dads in their 40s and older are significantly more likely to develop mental health disorders than those with much younger fathers.

A study led by University of Queensland psychiatrist John McGrath has found the offspring of older fathers are particularly at risk of mental retardation, autism or schizophrenia compared with those born to dads in their mid-20s. . . .

They then tracked the mental health history of those involved in the study over a 16-year period to the end of 2011, when more than 218,000 of them were treated for a first episode psychiatric disorder.

What else is there? Let's do more of the same old same old. Let's pretend autism is genetic and linked to moms/dads.

MY POSTED COMMENT:

More research designed to find NOTHING CONCLUSIVE ABOUT AUTISM.

Here autism, a neuro-developmental disorder, is misrepresented as a psychiatirc disorder.

Here bad genes cause autism.

Here, once again, the blame is dumped on the parents.

We've had years of bad science linking autism to bad behavior and bad genes in parents, especially the mother.

Older dads is nothing new. Other studies link autism to older moms, moms who smoke, drink, have babies too close together, don't get enough vitamin D, have bad antibodies, and who live too close to freeways.

There's funding for ANYTHING when it comes to autism that doesn't involve vaccines. NO ONE WANTS TO SEE A SIMPLE COMPARISON STUDY OF FULLY VACCINATED/NEVER VACCINATED CHILDREN. If one in every 50, the current autism rate among our kids, never vaccinated children also has autism, the proof would be there for all to see. With so many parents now too scared to vaccinate, the study group is out there. Officials do retrospective studies like this all the time but they refuse to call for one that could settle the most heated controversy overnight.

Vaccines aren't dangerous, according to Bill Gates. It's the belief that they can cause autism that poses a serious threat to the health of children.

The 58-year-old billionaire philanthropist spoke to "AMERICA with Jorge Ramos" in an interview that will air on Tuesday.

"Nothing has saved more lives than vaccines, and nothing has been more disproven than any link between vaccines and negative things like autism," Gates told Ramos, citing studies that reject the link between vaccines and the disorder. "The evidence is mind-blowingly overwhelming." . . .

In addition to vaccines, Gates spoke with Ramos about his foundation's investment in research to create a thinner, stronger condom. The foundation awarded more than $1 million in grants toward the goal in November.